1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to pet litter containers and, more particularly, to disposable pet litter containers constructed from cardboard and the like. Specifically, the present invention relates to such a collapsible pet litter container constructed from a single piece of material and which is adapted to be fully enclosed during use.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Disposal systems for pets, and in particular cats, are well known to the art. The traditional cat litter box has generally consisted of an open container of some sort with particulate litter material, comprised of clay and other absorbent materials, placed therein. The litter material absorbs urine and odors, and as the box becomes filled, the soiled litter is removed and replaced.
One of the more annoying problems with existing pet litter boxes of the type described above, is that the pets tend to dig in the clay and spread it during use. This frequently causes the clay and fecal matter to be kicked out of the box onto the floor area surrounding the box. This situation is both messy and a potential health problem due to diseases associated with cat litter. Moreover, the open box itself can also be a source of certain problems due to diseases associated with cat litter. One answer to this particular problem was the advent of litter containers that were enclosed. Examples of such enclosed containers include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,111,157, 4,522,150 and 4,667,622. While the animal litter containers disclosed in these references address the problem of retaining the litter and fecal matter within the container, these particular arrangements are expensive and still require certain disassembly in order to clean the litter box and change the litter.
Another problem associated with cat litter boxes includes the distasteful and unsanitary job of either cleaning the litter in the box and/or changing the litter. The process of dumping the litter from a box can cause certain health problems since considerable particulate matter becomes airborne as the solid litter is dumped, thereby increasing the potential of transmitting litter box diseases to the individuals dumping the litter. Moreover, the odor and general uncleanliness of the situation is highly distasteful to many people. Solution to this situation were sought in part by the design of disposable litter boxes. There are numerous examples of such disposable litter containers in the art, and they include devices disclosed in the following listed U.S. Pat. Nos.:
3,154,052, 4,441,451, 3,377,990, 4,501,226, 3,684,155, 4,541,360, 3,743,170, 4,548,160, 4,014,292, 4,627,382, 4,164,314, 4,628,863, 4,271,787, 4,646,685, 4,305,544, 4,648,349.
While all of the above referenced patents disclose disposable litter boxes for cats, all of them are open containers readily accessible to the environment and therefore have the same problems as initially described above. Moreover, a measure of these devices are complicated containers to both manufacture and assemble. Some of the devices include their own tops for storage, while others require additional packaging material for storage. Moreover, it is also necessary to separately add litter to these disposable boxes, and the process of adding litter to a cat litter box in and of itself can be distasteful because of the large amount of fine particulate material which is put into the air at the time clay litter is transferred to the litter box.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,982 attempts to attend to both of the above problems by disclosing an enclosed, disposable cat relief chamber. Howver, this particular device is relatively complicated and expensive to manufacture and does not come with its own litter contained therein. Moreover, the device of this particular reference also has a storage and disposal problem in that it is not collapsible during storage or disposal. Thus, there is still the potential for easy spillage of cat litter during disposal as well as space problems of disposal due to the size of the enclosed, non-collapsible litter box. Therefore, there is still a distinct need for an enclosed, disposable pet litter container which entails little or no mess in either the placement or removal of litter therefrom.